It should go without saying but it seems worth re-enforcing that it would be difficult for any casual viewer to see every Football League team in action over the course of a season. Of the three divisions, the Championship certainly receives the most coverage but even this can be a devil to keep track of.
Things are made even trickier these days given the revolving door of short-term loan signings that pervade the second tier. So, every now and then, it is worth trying to gauge opinion among fans by carrying out exercises like this. This may serve little purpose in the wider scheme of things but it does help guide this site as it tries to cover the Football League to the largest extent possible without knowing the intricacies of everyday life at each of the clubs that participate.
This is a flight of fancy that attempts to form a squad of 24 players, each drawn from a different Championship club. If anybody would like to take a stab at providing a version for League One or League Two, please get in touch via email.
And if you don’t agree with the selections below, make sure you have a rant in the Comments section and feel free to put forward your suggested changes or even an entirely different squad from scratch!
Please note – no loan signings have been considered for inclusion.
In the interests of debate, a first XI has also been chosen (in bold) - although there is a distinct lack of wide players! The most difficult choice here was certainly the two centre-forward positions.
GOALKEEPERS
David James (Bristol City)
Keiren Westwood (Coventry City)
Julian Speroni (Crystal Palace)
DEFENDERS
Stephen Foster (Barnsley)
Clarke Carlisle (Burnley)
James Bailey (Derby County)
Gareth McAuley (Ipswich Town)
Wes Morgan (Nottingham Forest)
Sean St Ledger (Preston North End)
Chris Morgan (Sheffield United)
Ashley Williams (Swansea City)
MIDFIELDERS
Brian Stock (Doncaster Rovers)
Cameron Stewart (Hull City)
Robert Snodgrass (Leeds United)
Andy King (Leicester City)
Barry Robson (Middlesbrough)
Liam Lawrence (Portsmouth)
Adel Taarabt (Queen’s Park Rangers)
Josh Wright (Scunthorpe United)
FORWARDS
Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff City)
Steve Morison (Millwall)
Grant Holt (Norwich City)
Shane Long (Reading)
Danny Graham (Watford)
Your feedback
If we ignore the oversight that initially saw two Reading players selected and none from Preston North End (!), the final team is listed above.
Your suggested changes to the first XI:
- Julian Speroni instead of Keiren Westwood
Your suggested changes to the squad:
- John Brayford instead of James Bailey (both Derby County defenders)
- James Coppinger instead of Brian Stock (both Doncaster Rovers midfielders)
- Richie Wellens instead of Andy King (both Leicester City midfielders)
- Chris Gunter or Luke Chambers instead of Wes Morgan (all Nottingham Forest defenders)
Your suggested additions:
- Lee Camp (Nottingham Forest)
- Kasper Schmeichel (Leeds United)
- Chris Eagles (Burnley)
- Jimmy Kebe (Reading)
- Luciano Becchio (Leeds United)
- Davide Somma (Leeds United)
If you’re going to pick a Derby defender surely you should pick their best one in Brayford, same could be said for Forest in picking Morgan over Gunter, especially as you’ve only picked centre backs. Brayford and Gunter would provide 2 full backs at least.
Fair comment. I haven’t seen an awful lot of Derby so I will bow to greater knowledge on that one.
Forest were one of the hardest teams to choose from - narrowed it down to Camp, Gunter, Morgan and McGugan - don’t think anyone else deserves a mention alongside those four. Gunter is the best full-back in the division and he was certainly close. I just think Morgan is a colossus…
Becchio has been good for Leeds this season.
I’m a Bristol City fan.
Yep, I had Becchio and Kebe to start with and changed it to include Snodgrass and Long instead! That applies to Urzz’s comment too!
Ask virtually any Championship defender the same question and I think they’d all say that Reading’s Jimmy Kebe has terrorised them this season, so a surprising omission, I’d say.
See comment above, plus I just realised I had two Reading players and none from Preston! haha Mills has been sacrificed.
If you are going to pick a doncaster rovers midfielder the one to pick is James Coppinger, Brian Stock has been injured for the last two seasoons where as copps has played well
Cheers for that, will add it to the post.
Where is Kasper Schmeicel? He has been the best Keeper in championship this season. He pulls off some world class saves. I also think Davide Somma should be in there. Just for his Goals / Games Ratio.
I don’t think you’ve noticed the bit about only including one player from each club?
So how about an actual best team then from this squad?
Of course, I mean with an actual side with wide players as well, wouldn’t choose 4 Cb that for sure.
Gotcha. You’d be struggling for a left-back and I’d have done it differently to include more wide players in defence and midfield obviously. It’s tricky though. I can’t think of many good permanent left-backs in the entire division to be honest.
Barry Robson? Seriously?
Haha okay. Are you a Boro fan? Who would you have instead?
would definitly have gunter ahead of morgan, morgan hasnt even been the best forest DC, Chambers has been far better!
as for the rest, i would probably drop bothroyd and have Chris Burke from Cardiff to add some width, and have Danny Graham as first choice striker along with Holt
Good point about the width, although I’m not sure Burke merits a place this season. Doesn’t seem to have been used as much as last season. Graham was close to that first choice team. As someone (rather aggressively!) pointed out on Twitter, Chris Eagles might be worth a place on the wing.
Seems I was definitely wrong to pick Morgan ahead of Gunter or Chambers. That was honestly one of the places I couldn’t really decide about, but Gunter is probably the pick there on reflection.
the keeper from QPR, he’s got som many clean sheets
Billy Sharp from Doncaster
Coppinger from Doncaster as well for the midfield, he provides som many good crosses
Don Cowie from Watford as well
I’m a pompeyfan, and as a young promising player…watch out for Joel Ward…he covered 5 different positions so far this season, and done a good job